and her colonists should have ended then and there with everyone living happily ever after under the union jack. except, except for one tiny irritant remaining in the economic relationship with the mother land. in repealing the townsend duties, a small group of angry parliamentarians decided they needed to retain some symbol of what they insisted was parliaments absolute authority to tax all british subjects with or without their concerns. although parliament yielded to all demands of the americans, its majority felt it had to retain at least one of the townsend duties as a symbol of authority so it retained the smallest, most innocuous one, the one on tea. wow. what a close -- colossal miscalculation. as i said before, it was nothing more than a woman's social beverage in the homes. few americans drank a cup of a tea a day, and in any case, the tax on tea was negligent, one tenths of a penny for a nine penny cup, that's a tax of one one hundredth of 1%, but as thomas put it, from so small a spark, a great fire was kindled. its flames would eventually destroy a great empire and spark the r